Snake Queens Palace (UE4)

Ged

Hello Everyone! Ive been learning substance designer and ue4 and making a decayed palace inspired by the snake queen salmissra in the Balgariad fantasy book series by David Eddings. Heres my progress so far, a lot of things are still work in progress, no cieling, no throne, no detailing or trim etc etc.


Here are some of the materials and props Ive made so far

Ged

I might also make the snake queen herself, Ive got some idea of what I think she looks like so Ive done a rough concept of her it looks a bit odd as I didnt want to concept the throne yet so shes just sitting on nothing haha.

Kel-Shaded

This is looking great dude

leleuxart

The snakes on the pillar look awesome. I hope to see more elements like that mixed in subbing!

Ged

Thanks a lot! Im still in early stages, there will be more snakes trust me! haha

Ged

Worked on the modular cieling asset and made the hall a fair amount wider.

substance designer iray render:

just started to get it Into UE4, needs better positioning and some possible material tweaks.

Ahoburg

Looks pretty sick so far.

Ognyan

Looks awesome! I really like the top of the pillars that resemble snake skin. How much geoemtry did you use for these? They look quite detailed. Keep it up!

Ged

Ognyan said:

Looks awesome! I really like the top of the pillars that resemble snake skin. How much geoemtry did you use for these? They look quite detailed. Keep it up!

Thanks a lot Ahoburg and Ognyan! I used a lot of geometry haha, I make mobile games at work so Im used to making things super low poly, so its fun at home to go a bit crazy and spend 10000 triangles on 1 cieling asset

Ged

working on the domed thone room more and tidying up some other bits n pieces. The sky was making those massive glows/lens flares come through the windows so I now have a container object blocking the sky, not sure if this is best practice though?

*removed image to help with bandwidth issues!

alifarsangi

Great work so far ! i will keep my eyes on this thread !

leleuxart

Looking nice man! Some bounce light is definitely needed though, especially around the throne with all that light coming through. Having such a lit area and then black shadows(first screenshot) really throws off the scene. 

As for the outside area, do you ever plan on showing it off? If not, then just do whatever works. You could set up a material that creates some bloom the farther away you get, and you can see outside when you're closer. Kind of like simulating over-exposed windows in an interior. 

Ged

leleuxart said:

Looking nice man! Some bounce light is definitely needed though, especially around the throne with all that light coming through. Having such a lit area and then black shadows(first screenshot) really throws off the scene. 

Yeah I know what you mean about the bounce light, been trying to get some light to bounce around the whole environment by cranking up the diffuseboost settings but it just makes the area around the throne look horribly bright and doesnt do much to the rest of the environment, its like I want to put more power into the subtle 3rd to 6th bounces

leleuxart

If I remember correctly, the DiffuseBoost controls the amount of diffuse color that's being bounced around(not necessarily strength, so the results will vary depending on the diffuse textures) and if you're using the lightmass setting, then it controls all of the materials. You may want to increase it differently for each material in their respective settings. You can also increase the number of light bounces and play around with a skylight or reflection actor in the interior.

You could also try it with one of the dynamic options, DFGI or LPV. Both have their own set of issues and limitations though.

Ged

Thanks for the lighting tips! Ive added a hint of ambient cubemap and that seems to add some much needed brightness and details to shadows without much change to my lighting setup
heres a big snake head I made for the scene, still figuring out places I can use it in the environment.

Ged

debris piles done!



and heres where its currently at:

Ognyan

This is shaping up really well! I am really eager to see it finished. It would be pretty cool to see some flythrough videos at the end

mrgesy

Wow looking beautiful man! Keep it up!

Ged

Thanks a lot! gotta get back to this soon, took a little break today and made an experimental alien bust instead haha. I will definitely post flythrough videos at the end but theres still a lot to do!

Heres my to do list:

windows - I have a basic concept already just need to get these done
dome roof - design is done just need to create zbrush sculpts and get it finished
stone brick dias for throne - design is not clear yet
throne - a rough concept has been sketched, lots of work to do
pillar tops in throne room - need to concept and sculpt
giant snake behind throne - some concept work done, not clear yet
Archways on doors - need more finesse
vfx - I will take some standard ue4 vfx and make them work in my scene

Finally flythrough video will need to be created, perhaps using matinee

Eric Chadwick

Oops, getting this error when trying to see your images. One of them was on our front page, maybe that's it? I removed it from there, let me know if you'd like it back there again.

Bandwidth Limit Exceeded

The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.

Ged

Eric Chadwick said:

Oops, getting this error when trying to see your images. One of them was on our front page, maybe that's it? I removed it from there, let me know if you'd like it back there again.

Wow thanks Eric, I guess my portfolio website host doesnt have enough bandwidth for me haha. hope they dont charge me Ok I will re-upload straight to polycount. 

Ged

There we go, hopefully that can go on the front page, thanks for the help Eric! 

Ged

working on the windows at the moment, the lighting has had some work too as the built in cubemap was giving wierd artifacts. The 3 tiered platform the throne is on (dias?) is the next thing to finish.

Ged

Ged

dorodo

Looking great! I love how the colors work togheter, and I would maybe even try to push that a little bit further through the lighting.

My only issues with it so far is the lack of interaction between assets. they're working pretty well by themselves, but I feel like you definitely should add weathering between the wall and the pillars, add some more subtle decals on the corners.

Finally, I'm no expert in carpets, but the one you got is by far the least organic asset of the scene. Even if you've added some weathering (which I also feel looks off), the sharp angles and flat design doesn't blend with what I believe the final scene looks like in your mind. It's also a major asset in your shot: the color stands out, and it fits really well inside the rule of thirds, so I would take some more time to look at references and also give it the "wow"-factor.

Overall, looking really sharp! I'm excited to see more of your progress.  

Ged

Hey thanks for the feedback, I totally agree with your points, Im hoping to get the assets done to a good degree and then do a "polish" pass on it at the end to add decals and trim and patterns to the carpet and weathering etc.

hmm_rock

Looking good! I'm loving the purple/green tones to this and the snake heads around the throne room area are very intimidating XD What is your debris pile utilizing a mesh/alpha/material to get the appearance of being on top of everything?

garcellano

Duuude! That's looking awesome! I love those sculpts and tiles. 

Ged

hmm_rock said:

Looking good! I'm loving the purple/green tones to this and the snake heads around the throne room area are very intimidating XD What is your debris pile utilizing a mesh/alpha/material to get the appearance of being on top of everything?

Thanks guys, its just a simple hand drawn opacity mask, the floor has enough blobby mucky bits that it kind of blends in well enough working on the roof sculpts at the moment and considering making some hanging cloth banners.

Ged

finished the snake queens throne! about 10000 triangles and 2048x2048 maps, shots are from substance painter 2 iray.



and heres the sculpt in zbrush.

AcH

Great modeling and texturing just add some fire torches to make some contrast

Ged

yup Ive actually just done that! just using the standard ue4 vfx assets to add fire and steam to the scene, it looks cool, I will post up a video when the environment is done

I just have to make a big snake statue behind the throne now, hopefully that doesnt take too long and then the whole environment is done!

Ged

still working on the environment but I figured out how to get a decent quality video out of UE4
*removed

Ged

nearly done with this. Just cleaning up some holes and materials and I can make the video. Added the snake sculpture into the environment.

Ged

Finally finished, thanks for watching. More screenshots available on my artstation.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/q6QBn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjAAFpcdgJc&feature=youtu.be

Nuclear Angel

This turned out really good. But as @dorodo pointed out, the carpet is in my opinion still not 100% there as the rest of the scene. the scene it looks amazing, so great job on finishing it all up. 

Ged

Nuclear Angel said:

This turned out really good. But as @dorodo pointed out, the carpet is in my opinion still not 100% there as the rest of the scene. the scene it looks amazing, so great job on finishing it all up. 

thanks! Oh I did rework the carpet textures and normals, I thought I had improved it significantly I guess not if you cant see it Live and learn I guess, I think the carpet could have benefitted from a bunch of folds in the geo around the stairs and some parts where its flicked over, that would have been more convincing as an asset.

JamieRIOT

This looks really good, Glenn.

 I really like the large snakes head statue above the throne and the scaly architecture spiralling up to the hole in the ceiling.

The carpet is the only thing that stands out in certain areas. The shot looking down it towards the throne looked nice, but the alpha clipping looks a little odd towards the stairs. Maybe it's because there is such a large chunk taken out of the carpet. There's a bit at 1:03 in the video where it looks like it is floating above the top step too?

Good job on getting it done though, looks really nice overall!

Ged

Thanks jamie, yeah the alpha opacity mask read is more detailed the closer you get, theres probably a better way to do that alpha. It was fun but Im definitly ready to move on to something new now!

Nuclear Angel

Yea it is just nitpicking, but as you said maybe adding some folds to the carpet would help it a lot, especially around the stairs. But good luck on your next project, looking forward to it!